


Patience

by ami_ven



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mcsheplets, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 21:27:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5431355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John is a patient but he isn’t patient— Rodney isn’t but he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Patience

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "mcsheplets" prompt #217 "patient"

Rodney groaned when their alarm went off, lying still for a moment like it might just turn itself off again, then swung his feet out of bed with another groan. It was still dark outside, and if it was just him, he’d have rolled over and gone back to sleep until a decent hour.

But it wasn’t just him, and it took twice as long as usual to get up and dressed with John out of commission the way he was. Rodney couldn’t honestly say he was _happy_ getting up ridiculously early every morning, but his schedule wasn’t his own anymore, and he was okay with that.

Groaning again, Rodney reached behind him to shake the blanket-covered lump still on the bed. “C’mon, Sheppard,” he said. “Up and at ‘em. It’s time for the torture session you like to call PT.”

Usually, John was out of bed right behind him, on his feet as best he could with a broken leg, a sprained wrist and four cracked ribs, stubbornly forcing himself to do as much as possible on his own. But today, the lump didn’t move, just curled more tightly under the blankets.

“Sheppard,” repeated Rodney.

“No,” John muttered. “I’m not going.”

“ _Sheppard_.”

“I’m sick of it, Rodney,” he said, and Rodney could hear the pain in his voice as John threw back the blankets to sit up, glaring at him. “It’s been two months and I’m still— I’m not— I’m _broken_ and I’m not getting better! It’s been two months, what if I never get any better than this? What _good_ am I to anybody, like this?” John sighed. “I just… I _know_ I’ve been terrible about this. I’m in pain all the time, I push too hard with my rehab, I fall asleep the second I get into bed… how are you being so patient about this?”

“You were _dead_ , John,” Rodney snapped. He’d tried not to think about it much, these last two months, tried to focus on John’s recuperation, so that he wouldn’t have to remember how pale and still John had been when they’d found him, how many times his heart had stopped during the hours of surgery that followed. “Do you understand that? I lost you, and I feel damned lucky to have gotten you back, so if ‘broken’ is the only way I get to keep you, I am completely okay with that. Got it?”

John let out a long, shuddering breath. “I don’t deserve you, Rodney,” he said, softly.

Rodney smiled. “No, you don’t. But there’s nothing you can do to get rid of me. Now, are you going to get up?”

“Yeah,” John said, and maneuvered his cast-covered leg over the side of the bed. But instead of hobbling to the bathroom by himself, he held out his hand. “Give me some help?”

Rodney smiled again and took it. “Oh, I’ll give you more than that.”

John laughed, soft and out of practice but genuine, and kissed him. “I’ll take it.”

THE END


End file.
